The Insightful Scribe

This year’s Earth Day theme is “The Face of Climate Change”. With the use of the word “face’, the first thing that comes to my mind is “portrait”. Back in August, a well-meaning elderly woman made the news by attempting to restore a 19th century church fresco of Jesus. The woman only wanted to give the worn out mural new life with an artistic facelift however once the first brush stroke was executed, she defaced the treasured piece of art. I liken that blotched portrait to earth. Our Creator sculpted a masterpiece and placed it amongst the stars and planets in the universe. He added an astounding final touch… life on the planet and said it was good. Then man, thinking he could make it better and more efficient, began adding his own touch of subtle destruction. Does it matter if we pollute the planet and destroy its ability to sustain life? The first sign of earth awareness wasn’t started by Theodore Roosevelt or Gaylord Nelson… it really began in The Garden of Eden when Creator God entrusted Adam and Eve as the earth’s caretakers. They were to replenish the earth and till the garden. That responsibility has been passed on to us and we are expected to care for what has been entrusted to us. We have been given dominion to rule over the earth, meaning to take care of creation… not lord over it with needless and selfish exploitation.

If we look at the earth as God’s masterpiece displaying His glory, then surely we must do our part in helping to keep it glorifying to our Creator. However, the impact of man’s best effort to compensate for his neglect will never restore us back to Eden. Recently, there has been a mass market crop of solar panels being installed throughout the land, especially in my region. While I see no problem in this innovative method of producing energy, I fail to find the beauty in fields of solar panels. Matthew 6:28-29 tells us the God clothes the lilies of the field so that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Leave it to man to cover these beautiful fields with black rectangles in yet another great “Save the Earth” plan, only to destroy the lilies in the grass beneath it. Perhaps the best solution would be to place them on an expendable space, such as less-conspicuous rooftops.

Environmental enthusiasts would have us believe that climate change has intensified in the last 50 years due to human activities that have caused the greenhouse effect. We can certainly see climate change on the East Coast with the unseasonal and reduced snowfall numbers, major flooding this past fall caused by the destruction forces of Super storm Sandy, as well as the first significant earthquake in the New York area nearly two years ago. But can we blame these unprecedented locales of natural events to be a result of human activity or simply natural variability? We forget that the Creator has ultimate control over the climate and according to Bible prophecy; we can expect dramatic weather events worldwide at the end of this age. Do we honestly believe that man can turn back the hands of time? I hardly believe with the advance of technology that man’s current lifestyle and selfishness would allow him to trade his Honda for a pair of Nikes. His latest and greatest automotive invention is the Hybrid, which sounds like a feasible alternative but only lessens, not diminishing the carbon dioxide released into the ozone.

So then, with this in mind does this give us a “carte blanche” to abuse the earth’s resources, writing this world off as an expendable and temporal planet? Absolutely not, we are its God-given caretakers and should cultivate its natural replenishing ability. As long as the Lord tarries we should strive to preserve the glory and marvelous evidence of His handiwork for future generations. So as believers, rather than just putting lipstick on a sketch composite of the Face of Climate Change, we should work together to assure the rainbow canvas of God’s masterpiece of creation is not needlessly defaced by man.

"Is it not enough for you to feed on the green pastures? Must you also trample them with your feet?"Is it not enough for you to drink the pure water?Must you also muddy it with your feet?" Ezekiel 34:18